A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,72

see what I see.”

“And you’ve never gotten one thing right. Not one!” Valentina sniped. “Maybe you should find another talent. Like kissing Sophie’s behind.”

“Anyone else have a talent?” Professor Dovey pressed.

“Fortune-telling,” said Bogden.

“Mine too,” said Willam, pulling out tarot cards.

Tedros remembered their prophecy about gifts. . . . The two boys had warned him to be wary of them. . . . and it was Rhian’s “gift” to Tedros that had let Rhian pull Excalibur from the stone and steal Tedros’ crown. . . .

Tedros looked at the two boys with new interest. “Ask your cards if we’ll get out of this room.”

Bogden dealt a hand. “Says yes.”

“And soon,” said Willam.

Tedros’ eyes lit up. “Ask the cards how we do it! Ask them how we get out of King’s Cove!”

Bogden and Willam looked at the cards . . . then at each other . . . then at Tedros. . . .

“Potatoes,” the boys said.

Everyone in the room stared.

“Potatoes?” Tedros repeated.

“Clearly they speak Tarot as well as they speak Horse,” said Professor Dovey. “What about you, Nicola?”

“Readers don’t come with talents,” Tedros griped, watching her search the walls for loose bricks.

Nicola glanced at him. “Yet your girlfriend’s a Reader and done far more to help us than you have.”

Tedros made a face . . . then perked up. “She’s right. Agatha freed our friends by using Dovey’s crystal ball from a thousand miles away. She figured something out. Surely we can figure something out too.”

“Crystal ball? Agatha used my crystal ball?” Dovey chortled. “How ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous or not, it worked, didn’t it?” said Tedros.

“No, I mean, she couldn’t have used my ball,” said the Dean. “No one can use my crystal ball besides me. I didn’t name a Second when I had it made. The ball would never answer to her.”

“Well, I saw her inside it,” Tedros pointed out.

“Me too,” said Valentina.

“Could have been any crystal ball—” Dovey started.

“Let’s hope so, because this one was broken,” Aja puffed. “Kept glitching and it only lasted a few minutes.”

Dovey’s face dropped. “But . . . but . . . Agatha can’t know how to use my ball! It’s impossible. Because if she does, then she’s in grave danger! That crystal ball nearly killed me! It isn’t working. Not the way it’s supposed to. She must have taken it from me when I came to Camelot! I have to speak to her—I have to tell her never to use it again—”

“Well, you can’t tell her anything until we get out of here!” Tedros said, venting his new fears for Agatha back at the Dean.

“There’s only one way out of King’s Cove,” Nicola piped up.

Everyone turned to the first year, who stood in front of a hole in the wall, struggling under the weight of the big brick she’d extracted from it.

“We can squeeze through there?” Tedros said excitedly.

“No. There’s another layer of wall behind it,” Nicola clipped. “The only way out of King’s Cove is to wait for someone to open that door and we hit them with this brick and make a run for it.”

“That sounds about as promising as ‘potatoes,’” Tedros snorted, shooting a glare at Willam and Bogden.

“Well, what’s your idea, then?” Bogden attacked.

“Yeah, what’s your talent other than taking off your shirt and bullying kids at school?” Willam harped.

“Bullying kids at school?” Tedros said, boggled.

“Don’t play the altar boy,” said Willam, cheeks searing pink. “My brother told me everything.”

“I don’t even know who your brother is—” said Tedros.

Nicola dropped her brick on the ground with a thud. “No one cares about what happened at school or your history of sibling abuse. We’re condemned to die in a basement and ambushing whoever opens that door is our only chance. Surprise them before they surprise us.”

“Oh please. No one’s coming,” Aja groaned, back to making waves in the pool with Valentina, using Valentina’s boot. “They’re gonna let us starve.”

“Well, everyone except Tedros,” said Valentina, poking harder at the pool. “They’re still going to cut off his head.”

“Thank you for the reminder. Is now really the time to be studying the properties of water?” Tedros barked, red-faced.

“We’re keeping el ratón away,” Valentina explained.

“Ratón? What’s a ratón?” said Tedros.

Aja and Valentina pointed at the end of her boot. “That.”

Tedros leaned closer and saw a fuzzy black cloud squirming in the middle of the pool. “A rat? Nevers are scared of rats?”

“Valentina and I are from Hamelin,” said Aja.

“Like Pied-Piper-of-Hamelin Hamelin,” said Valentina.

“Like the Hamelin-that-had-so-many-rats-it-gave-its-children-to-a-rat-catching-musician Hamelin,” said Aja.

“Wait, that isn’t just any rat,” Professor Dovey